Tag: Mansfield Town

Absence, we are often told, makes the heart grow fonder. It’s been a little over ten years since I last lived in St Albans and I’d seldom had cause to visit my former home over the course of the intervening decade. Perhaps it is this emotional gap that helped this city, the first true stop north on a journey from London, feel sprightlier to me than it might otherwise have done. On the other hand, though, perhaps something else has been going on there. The market now seems to specialise in artisan foods, the town centre was bustling in a way that many high streets have stopped doing so in recent years. The handsome cathedral building, which once seemed to be in a perpetual state of renovation, now seems to be finally clear of scaffolding. Even the Odeon cinema, which once stood derelict as a tribute to the seemingly irresistible onward march of the out of town mall, is now being renovated to reopen. The smell of affluence hangs heavy in the air. As if to prove the absolute failure of trickle-down as an economic theory, little of this wealth has ever found its way to Clarence Park, the leafy, historic, yet oddly unsatisfactory home of St Albans City Football Club. There has always been a strong irony to the fact that the football club in one of the...

Life isn’t fair and cheats often prosper. How unpalatable such statements are doesn’t alter how true they are, and it may be especially galling for the supporters of Mansfield Town that the valiant efforts of their team this afternoon will be overshadowed by a predictable row over the handled goal that eventually won a tumultuous FA Cup Third Round match for Liverpool this afternoon. Having conceded an early goal to debutant Daniel Sturridge, it might have been easy for the Blue Square Bet Premier side to have buckled and folded all together, but they kept their calm and put in a performance that is worthy of greater praise than it is likely to receive. Indeed, had their goal come ten minutes earlier, there is every chance that we would be talking about a replay and asking the question of how Liverpool had managed to fail to beat a non-league side club in the FA Cup. The headlines tomorrow morning, however, will all be about Luis Suarez, whose appearance from the substitutes bench and subsequent handled goal gave Liverpool a gap which proved to be too great for Mansfield Town to be able to bridge. In order to be able to properly assess whether this goal should have stood or not, we are charged with the tortuous task of referring back not only to FIFA’s Laws of The Game, but...

Hidden away among the doom and gloom spreading through football like a plague, borne on the backs of greedy money-men, is a shimmering chink of light with the news that Mansfield Town have finally secured ownership of their ground. The announcement that owner John Radford had purchased the freehold to Field Mill was the final axe blow needed to sever Keith Haslam’s link with the club. Despite selling the Stags back in 2008 Haslam has been clinging onto the ground ever since, renting it back to the club and going as far as to lock them out when things didn’t go his way in December 2010. The watershed moment which saw Haslam’s controlling connection to the club swirl down the plug hole came on Thursday. Radford took it right down to the wire, announcing the news that he would be completing the deal on Friday after already agreeing a long term lease extension just hours ahead of a deadline of 5pm imposed by the Football Conference meaning a promotion push for the Stags is now viable with the final box for membership criteria ticked. Barely able to contain his joy, Dean Foulkes, chairman of the Stags Supporters Association, told the local press: “This is fantastic news for the club and finally banishes the black cloud that has been hanging over the club. We now have a wonderful springboard to...

We have matches for you this evening, as our Non-League Videos Of The Week. Our first comes from the Blue Square Premier, and is the match between Mansfield Town and Cambridge United. Our second is from the Blue Square South, and is between Woking and Havant & Waterlooville. We then have two matches from this weekend’s FA Trophy Second Qualifying Round, with Bury Town playing Hythe Town, and Hednesford Town playing Matlock Town. Finally, we have the final league match that Enfield Town play at Cheshunt before moving to their new ground. They were at “home” against Ware in Division One North of the Ryman League. Our thanks, as ever, go to those that take the time to record, edit and upload these videos. You can follow Twohundredpercent on Twitter by clicking...

We have six matches for you as non-league videos of the week, from three different competitions. First of all, we have two matches from the Blue Square Premier, between AFC Telford United and Gateshead, and Mansfield Town and Alfreton Town. Next up, we have three matches from the First Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy, the matches between Bedworth United and Hednesford Town, Dartford and Truro City, and Weymouth and AFC Totton. Finally, we have a match from the First Round of the FA Vase. Our thanks, as ever, go to those that take the time to record, edit and upload these matches. You can follow Twohundredpercent on Twitter by clicking...